Coordinates: 32°08′40″N 34°48′16″E / 32.144495°N 34.804344°E / 32.144495; 34.804344

The Mossad (Hebrew: המוסד‎, IPA: [ha moˈsad]; Arabic: الموساد‎, al-Mūssād; literally meaning "the Institute"), short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim (Hebrew: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים‎, meaning "Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations"; Arabic: الموساد للاستخبارات والمهام الخاصة‎ al-Mōsād lil-Istiḫbārāt wal-Mahāmm al-Ḫāṣṣah), is the national intelligence agency of Israel.

The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism, as well as bringing Jews to Israel from countries where official Aliyah agencies are forbidden, and protecting Jewish communities worldwide. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister.

The largest department of the Mossad is Collections, tasked with many aspects of conducting espionage overseas. Employees in the Collections Department operate under a variety of covers, including diplomatic and unofficial. The Political Action and Liaison Department is responsible for working with allied foreign intelligence services, and nations that have no normal diplomatic relations with Israel. Additionally, the Mossad has a Research Department, tasked with intelligence production, and a Technology Department concerned with the development of tools for Mossad activities.

Aluf Meir Dagan (Hebrew: מאיר דגן‎; born 30 January 1945) is a former Israel Defense Forces officer and former Director of the Mossad.

Meir Huberman (later Dagan) was born to parents from Novosibirsk on a train in 1945, while they were being deported to a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. His maternal grandfather, Ber Erlich Sloshny, was murdered in the Holocaust. In 2009, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published two photos of Nazi soldiers standing next to a kneeling Sloshny shortly before they shot him. During his term as Director of the Mossad, Dagan kept one of the photographs hanging in his office. In 1950, Meir and his family made aliyah to Israel.Dagan is a vegetarian and an amateur painter, who studied painting and sculpture at the Tel Aviv University.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Dagan served as an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade. In the early 1970s, he commanded an ad hoc undercover commando unit, known as Sayeret Rimon, whose task was to combat the increasing violence in the Palestinian territories. He received a Medal of Courage for disarming a terrorist in 1971. Dagan later fought in the Yom Kippur War. During the 1982 Lebanon War, he commanded an armored brigade.